The invention claimed and disclosed herein pertains to generating images on sheets of media (as in printing or photocopying) and correctly orientation the post-imaging media so that document finishing can be correctly applied.
The present invention is directed towards methods and apparatus to facilitate achieving the correct orientation of a sheet of imaged media so that post-imaging xe2x80x9cfinishingxe2x80x9d can be correctly applied to the sheet. More specifically, the present invention is intended for use in photocopies and printers and other devices which generate an image on sheets of media. We will refer to all such devices generally as xe2x80x9cimaging devicesxe2x80x9d. The present invention is directed particularly towards digital imaging devices. These devices use a digital file in order to direct the print engine of the imaging device to generate the image represented by the digital file onto the media. The digital file can be transmitted to the imaging device from a remote source, such as a connected computer or a via a communication device. The digital file can also be created by the imaging device when the imaging device includes a scanner which first scans an object (such as a document) and then generates a digital file of the scanned image. Certain imaging devices can both receive digital files from external sources, as well as internally generate the digital file using a scanner. Digital imaging devices typically use an electrophotographic imaging process to generate images on sheets of media, although other processes, such as ink-jet printing and thermal printing, can also be employed. These imaging processes, and the imaging devices which perform them, are all well understood in the art and do not need to be described further herein.
When we use the expression xe2x80x9csheets of mediaxe2x80x9d in the present discussion we mean media on which an image can be generated by the imaging device. For example, sheets of media can include paper, transparencies, envelopes, card stock, labels and other media which can be processed by the imaging device in order to generate an image on the media. Although the present invention pertains to both photocopying and printing processes, we will use the term xe2x80x9ccopy productxe2x80x9d to refer to media on which an image has been generated by an imaging device.
Many advanced imaging devices are configured to apply post-imaging xe2x80x9cfinishingxe2x80x9d to the copy product. For example, such finishing can include stapling multiple sheets of copy product to one another, punching one or more holes in the copy product so that it can be inserted into a binder or the like, and binding sheets of copy product together in the form of a booklet. These finishing processes are performed by what we will term xe2x80x9cfinishing devicesxe2x80x9d, which are typically integrated into the imaging.device such that the finishing processes are performed automatically or semi-automatically. Such finishing devices are well known in the art and will not be described further herein.
For most finishing processes it is important that the copy product be properly oriented with respect to the finishing device so that the finishing process is correctly applied to the copy product. By way of illustration, FIG. 1A depicts a page 10, or the top page of stack of sheets, of media which can be placed into a document feeder, or on a flat glass bed, for scanning and copying by an imaging device. The document is presented to the imaging device in the orientation depicted, with the top edge 11 of the document 10 on the left as viewed from above by a user. Let us assume that the imaging device is provided with a document sheet feeder, and further that pages of a document to be copied are intended to be placed in the document feeder in a face-up orientation, and in the direction depicted in FIG. 1A. The resulting copy product 20 is depicted in FIG. 2A. The copy product has finishing applied in the way of a staple xe2x80x9cSxe2x80x9d on the left side 25 of the sheet 20 near the upper edge 21. Three holes xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d are also punched in the copy product 20 along the left side 25 of the document. As can be seen, the finishing has been applied in the xe2x80x9ccorrectxe2x80x9d position. That is, based on the orientation of the image consisting of the words xe2x80x9cDOCUMENT TO COPYxe2x80x9d, the staple xe2x80x9cSxe2x80x9d will allow a reader of the document to flip the pages in the normal right-to-left manner for most Western languages. Further, if the document were placed in a three-ring binder using the holes xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d, the document could be read by flipping pages in the same right-to-left manner.
However, if a user places the original document in the document feeder in the orientation as depicted in FIG. 1B, then a different result occurs. FIG. 1B depicts the same document sheet 10 as in FIG. 1A, which is assumed to be placed in the same hypothetical imaging device as described above. That is, the document feeder is configured such that the top edge 11 of the document 10 should be placed facing the left side as viewed from above by the user. However, as seen in FIG. 1B, the document 10 has been positioned with respect to the document feeder such that the bottom edge 17 of the document 10 is facing to the left. This results in the left side 15 of the document 10, and the right side 13 of the document, being reversed from the intended xe2x80x9ccorrectxe2x80x9d orientation depicted in FIG. 1A. Ordinarily, if finishing is not to be applied to the finished copy product, then the rotation of the document 10 from the position depicted in FIG. 1A to the position depicted in FIG. 1B is of little consequence. However, when finishing is applied to the copy product, then there is a problem. This is depicted in FIG. 2A which shows the copy product 30 which results when the original document 10 is placed in the orientation depicted in FIG. 1B. Since most finishing devices are relatively fixed with respect to the copy product, the finishing will be applied incorrectly. Specifically, the staple xe2x80x9cSxe2x80x9d has now been applied to the right edge 35 of the document near the bottom edge 31. Likewise, the holes xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d have been applied along the right edge 35 of the document. As is evident, in order to maintain xe2x80x9ccorrectxe2x80x9d positioning of the finishing, the staple should have been applied at the left edge 33 of the document near the top edge 37, and the holes xe2x80x9cHxe2x80x9d should have been applied along the left edge 33 of the document. While the finishing shown in FIG. 2B still allows the document to be read and held into a bound document, it requires a reader of the document to use an unnatural page turning process to turn pages of the document.
One prior art solution to this problem is to provide a visual aid, typically in the way of a graphic, to facilitate the user in properly orienting the document in the document feeder, or on the scanning glass. This is of some help, but it is still possible for the user to incorrectly position the original document with respect to the imaging device scanning section. Further, if the original document contains more than one sheet, and at least one sheet beneath the top sheet is misoriented with respect to the top sheet, then the misoriented sheet will have finishing applied to the wrong edge, even if the user positions the document correctly using the top sheet as a guide.
Another solution might be to configure finishing devices such that they can be relocated in the event the copy product is presented in an incorrect orientation. This solution is impractical since it would require either a very complex mechanical system to perform the relocation of the finishing device, or a high degree of user input. Another solution is for the user to remove the misoriented copy product and reposition it with respect to the finishing device. While this is feasible, it defeats the purpose of integrating the finishing device in the imaging device, i.e., of removing user intervention to apply finishing. Further, none of these solutions address the problem of an original multi-page document having randomly misoriented sheets. This latter situation is a problem even when no finishing is to be applied to the copy product, since the user will need to reorient the misoriented pages of the copy product.
While the problems described above are typically associated with scanning a stack of sheets for photocopying, it can also occur when a digital file is transmitted to the imaging device for printing. For example, if a user transmits a file to the imaging device for printing and the file has pages which are misoriented, the same problems will result. This can happen for example if the file is generated by scanning a multi-page document which includes misoriented pages.
What is needed then is an imaging device having copy product finishing capability and which achieves the benefits to be derived from similar prior art devices, but which avoids the shortcomings and detriments individually associated therewith.
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for determining whether a page of an original document is properly oriented so that finishing can be correctly applied to the copy product made from the original document. The original document can be in the form of an electronic representation of the document, or it can be in a tangible form which is thereafter reduced to an electronic form. In any event, the methods of the present invention are directed towards processing the electronic representation of the document, even though the starting document may be in tangible form. In it simplest form, the invention comprises determining whether a page of an original document is properly oriented, and if not, reorienting it. This can be done by performing optical character recognition on the electronic representation of the page to determine if the characters are oriented in a manner consistent with the preferred orientation of the document page. The method can be applied to a single-page document, to only the first page of a multi-page document, or to all pages of a multi-page document. In the latter case the process can be used to orient pages of a copy product even when a post-imaging finishing process is not to be applied.
More specifically, a first embodiment the present invention includes a method of formatting an electronic representation of a page of a document to be imaged by an imaging device. The electronic representation of the page can be in the form of a digital data file which can result from scanning a tangible document, or it can be a file transmitted to the imaging device from an external source, such as a computer. The method includes determining if the electronic representation of the page is oriented in a predetermined orientation. If the electronic representation of the page is not oriented in the predetermined orientation, then the electronic representation of the page is xe2x80x9crotatedxe2x80x9d so that the electronic representation of the page is in the predetermined orientation. This step of rotating the document page can be performed by altering the digital file, or it can be performed by instructing the imaging device to read the digital file in different order such that copy product is generated in a rotated manner. The method also includes either imaging the rotated electronic representation of the page to produce the copy product, or storing the rotated electronic representation of the page in a computer readable memory so that it can be imaged at a later time. The step of determining if the electronic representation of the page is oriented in the predetermined orientation can be performed, for example, by using optical character recognition software.
When the rotated electronic representation of the page is to be imaged to produce a copy product, the method can further include determining whether a finishing process is to be applied to the copy product. If not, then the step of determining if the electronic representation of the page is oriented in the predetermined orientation can be suspended. Likewise, the step of rotating the electronic representation of the page can also be suspended if no finishing process is to be applied to the copy product. In this manner the process of generating the final copy product is not delayed by the processing time required to determine whether the page is correctly oriented, since the effect of misorientation is not as significant as when finishing is to be applied to the copy product.
When the electronic representation of the page represents the first page of a multi-page document, the remainder of which is represented by a secondary electronic representation, then the method can include rotating the secondary electronic representation when the electronic representation of the page is rotated. That is, the assumption is made that if the first page is misoriented, then all subsequent pages are also misoriented. This can occur when an original document is placed in a document feed tray in the incorrect position. However, it can also occur that random pages in the multi-page document are misoriented, in which case the method can include determining if the electronic representation of each page of the multi-page document is misoriented. Those pages which are determined as being misoriented can then be rotated, while those pages which are not misoriented are not rotated. This latter process is slower than the aforementioned process where only the first page is considered. Therefore, preferably an imaging apparatus which is configured to implement the methods of the invention allows a user to select whether to apply the formatting feature to correct orientation, to apply the formatting feature to only the first page of a multi-page document, or to apply the feature to all the pages of a multi-page document.
For a multi-page document, the method can also include determining if the electronic representation of each page is oriented in the predetermined orientation by using optical character recognition (xe2x80x9cOCRxe2x80x9d) on a preselected portion of each page. The OCR can be performed using OCR software. Further, the OCR software can be used to determine whether a footer is present in the preselected portion of the page. That is, the top and bottom portion of a first page can be examined using the OCR software. If text indicative of a footer is detected, then the method includes determining whether the orientation of the footer indicates whether the page is misoriented or not. If the orientation of the footer determines that the page is misoriented, then the page is rotated. Subsequent pages of the document can be likewise examined and rotated if the footer is indicated as being in the incorrect position. Preferably, this feature can be selected and deselected by a user of the imaging device, such as through a control panel or a computer connected to the imaging device. Further, since detection of the footer can comprise only checking for the presence of absence of text in the preselected portion of the page, a simpler OCR process can be used. This simpler process can be termed xe2x80x9coptical character determinationxe2x80x9d, since all it must do is determine whether a character is present or not, and does not need to determine what the character is.
A second embodiment of the present invention provides a method of generating an image from an electronic representation of a page of a document to be imaged by an imaging device. The method includes performing optical character recognition on at least a portion of the electronic representation of the page to obtain a digital representation of at least one character from the electronic representation of the page. The digital representation of the at least one character is then compared to a set of recognized characters. The method includes determining if the digital representation of the at least one character matches a character in the set of recognized characters. These last two steps can be performed using OCR software, for example, which includes a library of recognized characters. If the digital representation of the at-least-one character does not match a character in the set of recognized characters, the electronic representation of the page is rotated in the manner described above with respect to the first embodiment of the invention. Thereafter the electronic representation of the page is imaged by the imaging device to produce a copy product. Alternately, or in addition to generating the copy product, the electronic representation of the page can be stored in a computer readable memory device. The method can also include first optically scanning a document to generate the electronic representation of the page.
Further, the optical character recognition can performed on at least a portion of the electronic representation of the page to obtain digital representations of at least three characters from the electronic representation of the page. The digital representations of the at-least-three characters can then be compared to the set of recognized characters. It is then determined whether a majority of the digital representations of the at-least-three character matches characters in the set of recognized characters. If the majority of the at-least-three characters do not match characters in the set of recognized characters, then the electronic representation of the page is rotated. That is, the method can use statistical sampling and analysis on a plurality of characters to determine whether the page is misoriented. This addresses the situation where a character, which has been selected for analysis from the electronic representation of the page, can match a character from the character set even when the selected character is inverted and mirrored. For example, an inverted and mirrored letter xe2x80x9cIxe2x80x9d will appear the same whether it is inverted and mirrored or not, depending on the font used. Accordingly, by sampling a number of characters, the probability is reduced that the page will not be rotated when it should be rotated.
If it has been determined that the digital representation of the at-least-one character does not match a character in the set of recognized characters, then the method can include the following additional analysis. A determination can be made whether rotating the digital representation of the at-least-one character by ninety degrees in a first direction will cause the digital representation of the at-least-one character to match a character in the set of recognized characters. If not, the electronic representation of the page is rotated. This step addresses the situation where one or more of the pages in the original document is oriented in a xe2x80x9clandscapexe2x80x9d format. That is, if the method makes the assumption that all of the pages of the document are in portrait format, then most of the OCR performed on the character selected for comparison to the set of characters will indicate that the page is misoriented. However, if, before rotating the page, the character is first rotated ninety degrees in a first direction (which corresponds to a correct orientation for a page in landscape format) and then compared to the character set again, it can occur that the selected character now matches a character in the character set. In a like manner, an additional check can be performed by rotating the selected character ninety degrees in a second direction from its initial position and then comparing it to the character set. If the rotated character does not match, then it is indicative that the page is in landscape format and is correctly oriented.
A third embodiment of the present invention provides for an imaging device for generating a copy product from an electronic representation of a page of a document. The imaging device includes an imaging section configured to generate the copy product from the electronic representation of the page of the document, and a processor configured to execute steps of a computer executable program. The imaging device also includes a computer readable memory device which has a page rotation algorithm stored therein. The algorithm comprises a series of computer executable steps configured to be executed by the processor to do the following: (1) determine if the electronic representation of the page is oriented in a predetermined orientation; and (2) if the electronic representation of the page is not oriented in the predetermined orientation, to rotate the electronic representation of the page so that the electronic representation of the page is in the predetermined orientation. That is, the algorithm can be configured to perform the methods of the present invention, as set forth herein. The page rotation algorithm (also described herein as a xe2x80x9cpage orientation programxe2x80x9d) can be an optical character recognition program. Further, the imaging device can also include an optical scanner configured to optically scan a tangible pace of an original document to thereby generate the electronic representation of the page of the document.
The page rotation algorithm can include all of the features described above with respect to the methods of the present invention. For example, it can be configured to determine whether the electronic representation of only the first page of a multi-page document is oriented in the predetermined orientation, or it can be configured to determine if the electronic representation of each page is oriented in the predetermined orientation. Preferably, the page rotation algorithm can perform both of these functions, which can be optionally selected to be executed (i.e., enabled or disabled) by a user. Likewise, the page rotation algorithm can be further configured to determine if the electronic representation of the page is oriented in one of a landscape format or a portrait format. Preferably this feature can also be enabled or disabled by a user.
The imaging device can further include a finishing device configured to apply a finishing process to the copy product. For example, the finishing device can be a stapler, a device for punching holes in the copy product, or a device for binding the edges of the copy product in a booklet format. Preferably, the finishing device is selectable between an enabled state to apply the finishing process to the copy product, and a non-enabled state to not apply the finishing process to the copy product. In this case the page rotation algorithm is preferably configured to be disabled when the finishing device is in the non-enabled state. That is, if finishing is not to be applied, then generally the page rotation feature is not desired, and the copy product can be generated in a shorter amount of time. However, if pages in a multi-page document include pages which are misoriented as well as pages which are correctly oriented, then a user can elect to enable the page rotation program even if no finishing is to be applied to the copy product to thereby put all of the sheets of the copy product into the correct position.